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Harry Clarke’s War. Marguerite Helmers
Читать онлайн.Название Harry Clarke’s War
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isbn 9780716533092
Автор произведения Marguerite Helmers
Издательство Ingram
FIGURE 1.3
‘We are Making a New World’ (1918) by Paul Nash. ©Imperial War Museum Art.IWM ART 001146.
Recruiting in Ireland
The complex status and Irish identity of the Irish soldiers memorialized in Ireland’s Memorial Records is related to questions of why the men enlisted. The horrible conditions of the Dublin slums in the early twentieth century give credence to suggestions that Irish soldiers who served with British regiments in the First World War were essentially conscripted by poverty, having no other choice than to enlist and take ‘the King’s shilling’. At the time, it was the Labour Party leader James Connolly who advanced the idea that the working class had been sacrificed by the war,22 and this attitude was promoted by his contemporary, Dublin resident and pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who believed the enemy was not Germany, but ‘English militarism – Kitchenerism’.23 More recently, Terence Denman has asserted that ‘the urban poor, labourers and the unemployed, disproportionately formed the mass of Irish recruits in the south’.24
In 1914, unemployment was close to 20 per cent in Dublin, and a lack of manufacturing meant that most of the workforce was unskilled. Close to one quarter of the Dublin-city population occupied tenements that were ripe with overcrowding, disease, and poor sanitation. The transport workers’ strike from 26 August 1913 to January 1914 resulted in 20,000 employees losing their wages and the declaration of war in August 1914 led to a rise in prices for coal, meat, milk, and bread.25 Thomas Dooley points to these basic needs as a factor in enlistment, but adds that military service also ‘meant a job which offered escape from drudgery. It promised excitement, the potential for advancement and a future’.26
Catriona Pennell’s important study of enlistment in Ireland demonstrates that enlistment figures were consistent with those of England. In addition to the regular armies, Patrick Callan cites a figure of 140,460 men enlisting during the war’s duration.27 Over 20,000 Irishmen enlisted by 15 September 1914, predominantly from industrial areas of the island. Yet, as Terence Denman notes, the ‘class known in Ireland as “farmer’s sons” were largely disinclined to join up’ because they were needed at home.28
FIGURE 1.4
‘Your first duty is to take your part in ending the war’, Mr J. E. Redmond, M. P., at Waterford, 23 August 1915. Central Council for the Organization of Recruiting in Ireland. Image Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland, WAR/1914–1918.
Pennell is careful to avoid any overwhelming motivation assigned to those soldiers who enlisted, yet she does point out that genuine belief in the rightness of the war was a motivating factor for many young men to enlist in the British forces.29 This sense that the war was a just war, ‘in defense of right, of freedom, and religion’, was encouraged by Sir John Redmond, the nationalist MP for County Waterford.30 On 27 August 1914 Redmond announced to Parliament that the Irish would fully support the war: ‘I am glad and proud to be able to think that at this moment there are many gallant Irishmen willing to take their share of the risks and to shed their blood and to face death in the assistance of the Belgian people in the defense of their liberty and their independence.’31 A month later, on 20 September 1914, upon passing through Woodenbridge, County Wicklow and seeing a parade of the Irish Volunteers, Redmond reiterated his support for the war, drawing on the stereotype of the fighting Irish to encourage enlistment:
it would be a disgrace for ever to our country and a reproach to her manhood and a denial of the lessons of her history if young Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion, and to shrinking from the duty of proving on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race all through its history.32
While the majority of the Irish people hoped that war would be avoided, once war was declared, many believed it was necessary and relief organizations mobilized to support the war by fund-raising, sending food, and making clothes and bandages.33 Pennell writes,
As in Britain, Irish individuals, regardless of political affiliation, volunteered for a variety of reasons. For some it was a combination of an opportunity for adventure and/or a sense of duty. Many identified with Ireland’s ideological support of the war. … Support for Belgium was a significant motivating factor. … As has been explored elsewhere, a strong tradition existed of Irishmen enlisting in the British army, both before and after the First World War. Some men were simply following a family tradition of soldiering, entering into a respectable career. … The readiness of individuals to join the colours was largely determined by the attitudes and behavior of comrades – kinsmen, neighbours, and fellow-members of organisations and fraternities.34
Tom Johnstone lists old soldiers, young men ‘from all classes’, rugby football players, and ‘a company of tough Dublin dockers’ among the recruits.35 Philip Orr, chronicling the history of the 10th (Irish) Division under the command of General Bryan Mahon, records that ‘Frank Browning, President of the Irish Rugby Football Union, sent a circular to his players, just a few days after war was declared. Within a short space of time, he had established a 300-strong “Volunteer Corps”, which drilled at the Lansdowne Road rugby ground for several evenings each week. During these sessions Browning would encourage his men to enlist.’36 Browning’s volunteers were members of the loyalist Protestant professional class who lived in Dublin while training for careers elsewhere. The players would form the core of the famous D Company of the 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who would be almost completely wiped out at Suvla Bay in Gallipoli on 6 August 1915.
Regular and New Armies
In 1914, Ireland was home to nine regular regiments of infantry, which were subsequently attached to the British Expeditionary Force. These included the Irish Guards, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In addition, Ireland’s military included four regular regiments of cavalry. These included the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the Inniskilling Dragoons, the Royal Irish Lancers, and the King’s Royal Irish Hussars.37
On 11 August 1914, the War Office in London established thirty New Army divisions, which came to be known as Kitchener’s Army or the Pals. Pals divisions were designed to aid recruiting by promising ordinary working men the opportunity to train, travel, and fight side by side with family, friends, and co-workers.38 By November 1914, three new divisions were established in Ireland: the 10th (Irish) Division, the 16th (Irish) Division, and the 36th (Ulster) Division. The 10th (Irish) was the first division that could be called ‘Irish’, a term that John Redmond argued would instil pride and aid recruiting. As Captain Stephen Gwynn later claimed to potential recruits, ‘Each battalion